Processing a duck

[Stacyoung13]

Hi everyone, do you process ducks the same as chickens?

 

[Jpat]

Hi everyone, do you process ducks the same as chickens?

Hey there, processing ducks is a huge pain compared to chickens

The proper way would be to soak for 45 seconds in hot water like a chicken but add a teaspoon of dish detergent. its the only way the water will get to the skin through the oils

Then pluck all the feathers and down.

Now heres the reason why i dont process any ducks anymore.

Ducks have way more pin feathers and tiny feathers. it takes forever to pull them with pliers. Then the tiny hairs like feathers

They make a special wax that you melt in hot water and coat the Carcass with like waxing the wifes legs. But i could never find it

My only segestion is kill only 1 at a time. incase you want to back out halfway through i killed 4 at once. Plucked one and skinned the rest.


And the meat needs to age in the fridge longer than chicken

 

[Jpat]

Heres the link to the wax

http://www.cconly.com/processing/ez_duck_wax

 

[The Dapper Duck]

Heres the link to the wax

http://www.cconly.com/processing/ez_duck_wax

You can use paraffin wax, like the Gulf brand you find in the canning section at the store. It makes a prettier carcass and gets lots of pin feathers and some of those hairs off, but I am not cleaning my birds solely for posting in Instagram, so I don't care as much. It also takes about a 1/3 of a block of wax per bird and you have to pre-pluck the outer feathers to expose the down, and after all that you still might have to torch off the wee hairs. If it's a whole roasted duck for Xmas or some special event, sure. If you are just planning to eat the bird on a Tuesday, don't bother.

I don't mind processing ducks, but I also hunt ducks, so I am quite fast at dry plucking a breast. My best advice is pluck the breast and legs and then cut the breast out as one piece and the legs off as quarters. If you want the bones for stock (highly recommended) then skin the rest of the carcass. Don't forget to snag that liver and heart!

Duck skin is way tougher than chickens, so what I do is dry pluck the breast and legs by holding the feet and pull the feathers down and away from me. The motion should be like a pinch of feathers and a quick little snap downward. It goes way faster than you think once you have done it a few times. After you have gotten the majority off, take the bird to a cold water trickle from a hose or faucet, hold the bird under the cold water and firmly wipe the remaining feathers off with the side of your thumb. It will make a squeaky rubber sound.

Once the feathers are off, cut the breast first by starting on one side of the bird by the ribs, go behind the breast toward the keel, up the keel to the top but not through the skin, then back down the other side of the keel and out similar to how you went in. This keeps the breasts in a nice package and if you fry it in the pan like that the skin can't shrink as much and it will stay more flat for crisping up. Then take the legs off at the hips. Then take your knife and unzip the ribs from one side and scoop out the liver and heart, which you can do while keeping everything else inside if you are not interested in the bones. As stated earlier, if you want the bones then skin the rest of the carcass and pop open the rib cage all the way to remove the rest of the entrails.

Slightly more work than a chicken, but well worth it! Good luck!

 

[Jpat]

You can use paraffin wax, like the Gulf brand you find in the canning section at the store. It makes a prettier carcass and gets lots of pin feathers and some of those hairs off, but I am not cleaning my birds solely for posting in Instagram, so I don't care as much. It also takes about a 1/3 of a block of wax per bird and you have to pre-pluck the outer feathers to expose the down, and after all that you still might have to torch off the wee hairs. If it's a whole roasted duck for Xmas or some special event, sure. If you are just planning to eat the bird on a Tuesday, don't bother.

I don't mind processing ducks, but I also hunt ducks, so I am quite fast at dry plucking a breast. My best advice is pluck the breast and legs and then cut the breast out as one piece and the legs off as quarters. If you want the bones for stock (highly recommended) then skin the rest of the carcass. Don't forget to snag that liver and heart!

Duck skin is way tougher than chickens, so what I do is dry pluck the breast and legs by holding the feet and pull the feathers down and away from me. The motion should be like a pinch of feathers and a quick little snap downward. It goes way faster than you think once you have done it a few times. After you have gotten the majority off, take the bird to a cold water trickle from a hose or faucet, hold the bird under the cold water and firmly wipe the remaining feathers off with the side of your thumb. It will make a squeaky rubber sound.

Once the feathers are off, cut the breast first by starting on one side of the bird by the ribs, go behind the breast toward the keel, up the keel to the top but not through the skin, then back down the other side of the keel and out similar to how you went in. This keeps the breasts in a nice package and if you fry it in the pan like that the skin can't shrink as much and it will stay more flat for crisping up. Then take the legs off at the hips. Then take your knife and unzip the ribs from one side and scoop out the liver and heart, which you can do while keeping everything else inside if you are not interested in the bones. As stated earlier, if you want the bones then skin the rest of the carcass and pop open the rib cage all the way to remove the rest of the entrails.

Slightly more work than a chicken, but well worth it! Good luck!

Heres the wisdom i was lacking, i shouldnt have made it sound monumental. i like the quartering idea

 

[The Dapper Duck]

I forgot to mention, make sure your ducks are feathered before attempting any of this. It doesn't work with pinny ducks, not even the wax. I raised a batch of Rouen and RouenXmallard last year and decided one weekend that it was the last Saturday I was going to wake up to ducks quacking incessantly. Well they had about a week or two to go before they were all feathered out, so I had some bad-looking carcasses with all those pin feathers. We skinned a couple even, which is painful for me because I LOVE that fat and crispy skin. Lesson learned. I will check the feathering on any ducks I butcher in the future.

 

[Stacyoung13]

Thanks for the replies. I know what I’m getting into now

 

[Sundevill11]

FYI- HORRIBLE TOPIC.

 

[casportpony]

I know some people skin rather than hassle with plucking.

 

[danceswithronin]

I wanted meat ducklings but this processing procedure makes it seem out of the question, that is a major pain in the ***.